With the police, you gotta make yourself invisible. Be as unobtrusive as possible and fit in with your surroundings (It boils down to - be a chameleon or be a statistic). Pay attention to the homeless population. If they are all over the place then you can let yourself look as cruddy as you want because the homeless are a fixture. But if you can’t find any of your brothers in poverty then you must either clean yourself up and become "presentable" or relocate.
Being picked up by the police can be a mixed bag affair. On three separate occasions I remember being picked up by very compassionate officers who sincerely wanted to help. Two other times I had the holy snot kicked out of me by some real sleazes. I think I just heard someone say, "Well, I would fight back!" I would place my bet on this being the outcome if you did -- "Honest chief, this bum just come outta nowhere and attacked us for no reason! Once we saw the (insert weapon here) we fired to protect ourselves."
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4... Sewers, Storm Drains, etc- NOT! Trust me on this one, I’ve been in them… They come in all shapes and sizes, and while going from point A to point B may be okay you don’t want to live in the freakin’ things. Your sense of smell will be shot in short order and if you’re in them during a large rainstorm you’re gonna swear you are being flushed down a toilet. Let's not forget the opportunities contract all sorts of wonderful diseases/maladies as well as have your cuts &scrapes horribly infected. Rabies anyone? Excellent way to get yourself killed and when you come out everyone in a five-block radius is going to notice you (slight exaggeration but you know what I mean). Hard to remain unobtrusive if everyone thinks you’re a CHUD.
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3... Dumpsters - My personal rule is if you didn’t watch them dump it- then don’t! I learned the hard way that just because it looks all right doesn’t necessarily mean it is. Cook the crud out of the veggies and expect to lose a lot of the nutritional value. Wash the fruit with the cleanest water you can get and peel it. I don't advise using the meat the butchers throw out because most of them will try to sell it until last possible moment.
4... HEEEERRRE KITTY KITTY! - All joking aside, in the towns and cities that is THE EASIEST way to catch "the other white meat"…. Personally, I’ll pass on the rat catchin’. It's good to understand that many of the woodlots will carry more critters than you may realize are out there, it’s catching them that can prove real trying. There are also ponds and creeks available in many places too, where you might be able to catch frogs, crawdads and turtles. Look for any signs warning of pollution and not fishing first. Make sure you thank the good folks that feed the pigeons for fattening the little beasts up. As far as what to use to catch the critters, silence and concealability are going to be your two biggest factors no matter how you consider the problem.
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My Pigeon Traps - Pigeons are funny critters (and easy to catch, IMO). Besides beanin' them with sticks, I've chunked fist-sized rocks at em, and trapped them. In the cities, go where there's flocks of them and they aren't really afraid of people. Feed them for a little bit, then go about setting up your trap(s). Scatter a little more feed and sit back and wait. Shouldn't take more than a few minutes to get enough for dinner.
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Eating pigeons and small birds - I don't know much about any diseases in pigeons (or other birds) but, while I was homeless, I ate hundreds of the little beasties without any ill effects....
The trick, IMO, is to give the bird a REAL GOOD once over before considering eating it. When you come across a sick pigeon, you'll know it. It'll be missing a lot of its "fluff" (not talking about molting here) and the bare skin will look like third degree burns or something. If the legs look like the skin is rotting, that's a good sign too. Eyes look funny? Like cataracts? Find any of these things, then just toss the bird. You can always get another. It IS possible that the way I checked the birds out was “improper,” but doing it this way I never got sick from eating them.
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For the women - I had the opportunity to meet quite a few "bag ladies" and you’d be surprised at how many of them would actually have been very good looking if cleaned and "dressed" up. A lot of what they did as far as dress and appearance went (baggy multi-layered clothes, grimy hands and face, rats-nest hair, etc) was for purely defensive purposes. The crappier they looked, the less chances of being sexually victimized. I gotta tell you, I heard some real horror stories from some of these gals…
